Gay charity refutes Beeb’s ‘gay workplace’

Gay charity Stonewall has cast doubts on reports that the BBC’s commitment to diversity has seen it overrun with lesbian and gay employees.

It comes after the Mail on Sunday reported that the channel recently had an “impartiality summit” where issues of bias and representation were discussed.

The report alleges that BBC officials and presenters agreed that the broadcaster has a left-leaning and admitted that there is a lot of political correctness at the corporation, citing a large number of homosexual staff as an example.

But Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill described the report as “curious,” especially after a report by the lobby group earlier this year which found that only 0.06% of airtime was devoted to sexual diversity. The figures suggest that lesbian and gay lives were covered in just six minutes out of 168 hours of prime time television.

Just over half an hour of the broadcast material included “derogatory or offensive references to gay people.”

Mr Summerskill told PinkNews.co.uk: “There are no openly gay members on the Board of Governors or senior management team.

“Of course there may be gay people working there, that doesn’t mean they are represented on air in an appropriate manner.”

Other conclusions of the meeting included support women newsreaders wearing a veil and allowing the hypothetical broadcast of an interview with Osama Bin Laden despite the offence it would cause.

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